Not Much Excitement Today...

But Plenty of Pictures. If that doesn't make you excited to read this post, I don't know what will. ;) This is Bunny the Cat. Bunny likes to do somersaults on people's feet. And climb into the broken window so she's between the two windows. And trip people when they're trying to walk. She's a funny cat.

This is Tess the dog. Tess likes to terrorize Bunny the Cat. And cause problems. And jump on me. She's a funny dog. Here's a question for you. Do you think dogs need to wear coats in the winter? Our neighbor does. She doesn't like us.

I made Tyler let me take some pictures of him. It's like pulling teeth with these kids! I want to tell them that someday they won't be so cute, and they'll wish they had lots of pictures of back when they were cute. They wouldn't believe me anyway.

He was giving me all sorts of cheesy smiles, so I told him he didn't have to smile at me the whole time. So, he looked away. And then he looked the other way. He wouldn't hold still.

I finally got him to just hold still and look at me, and not cheese. Isn't he handsome? I like smiles, too, but not all the time. Yes, I know. He needs a haircut.

Cooper had a fun time playing in the "kitchen".

I love imagination that doesn't cause messes.

Brandon pruned trees today. He kept asking me how to do it, and I have no clue. I'm sure he did a fine job, because he's a fine man.

Ty and Coop played baseball for awhile. The chair is first base... can you feel the tension here?

I love that I caught Tyler just missing the ball. We're working on the grounders.

Here's Cooper's vintage baseball card picture. He found a bat at the dump today, so we had to get a picture of it, of course. He's very proud of that old bat. He hit a lot of balls with it today.

Tyler got to go to a pow wow today for Scouts. He was super excited, but I don't think it ended up being as exciting as he thought it would be. This is right after he got home.

Aubrey doesn't like me to take her picture. She thinks they all look bad. I think if she'd just stop being goofy, she wouldn't have any goofy pictures of herself. I happen to love this one, though. (She doesn't.)

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I went to a Regional Women's Conference where Richard Paul Evans spoke this morning. I also played my violin for it. It was wonderful, inspiring, and a big boost for me today. I loved it. The only thing I'm upset about is that Brandon and I didn't go to the couples' session last night. I really didn't know what I was missing, so I let tiredness and orneriness keep me home. Sigh.

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Well, that's our day. Another day in the life of the Smith family. Just one thrill after another. ;)

End of Winter and a Hello

It really hit me today that winter is really over when I saw the sled sitting in the yard with not a bit of snow around it. Plus, see the little green grass guys coming up? Come on, little green grass guys! I'm ready for you!

I also enjoyed the hello from someone special today. I love the rainbows on the wall!

Oh, and if you look really close at the marbles in the header picture... you can see me in them. So weird!

FOR MARCI

Everyone else can just ignore this post. :)

Brandon and Tyler's Excellent Adventure

Brandon was on call this Saturday, and of course, had to be gone the whole day. He had to drive to a rig down by Arches, so he decided to take Tyler along (even though it's against the rules... we don't care about rules, though... rules are for sissies.) I thought I'd share the pictures that Brandon took so you could share their adventure with them.

Vanessa's Giveaway!

Well, I can't miss my best friend Vanessa's giveaway! I guess you could go over to her amazingly cute and funny blog and enter too... even though it dilutes my chances. ;)

Farm Chicks Giveaway

I know there is no way I'm going to win this giveaway at Farm Chicks, but it's worth a try anyway, right? ;) Go on over there and enter yourself! (It's a cute blog to look at whether you enter or not!)

Today I Throo a Temper Tantrim

I've been helping the boys clean their room today (how on EARTH can two boys make such a mess???) and I found this journal of Cooper's from last year. I had to post it on here, because it perfectly fits this day.

I substituted first grade today and on Wednesday also, and let me tell you, the measly amount they pay is NOT WORTH IT. I don't like kids. Not at all. Not even a little bit. Today I told one kid to sit down in his seat at least 200 times. I'm not exaggerating. That's not the worst of it though... there was a kid who literally threw a raving sobbing throwing-things tantrum about every 5 minutes. It would be because I didn't do something exactly the way that he thought I should.

For example, I picked up a red marker...

"YOU CAN'T USE THE RED MARKER!! MRS. C. USES THE BLACK MARKER!!! AHHHH!" I would say, "Well, I don't see the black marker, so we are using the red marker today." SOB, THROW PENCIL ACROSS THE ROOM, SCREAM, PUT HEAD ON DESK...

Here was another fun one: we had to go over spelling words. Apparently the day before they learned "ee" words. That day (Wednesday) we learned "ea" words. I start writing them on the board. "THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO BE "EE"!!!!" Me: "No, some words are spelled with "ee", some with "ea". These today are "ea" words." "NOOOOOO, THEY. ARE. EE!!!" "I'm sorry, but I can't change the spelling. This is what they are, and these are the words I'm supposed to teach you." SOB, THROW PENCIL ACROSS THE ROOM, TEAR PAPER IN HALF, SOB ON THE DESK FOR AN HOUR. Can we say issues???

Speaking of issues... there's a girl in the class who has been bounced from first grade to first grade because nobody can handle her. EVERY thing I told her to do she would ignore me. Then when I talked right to her face, she'd roll her eyes and say, "Oh my gaaawwwd". Every single time. Then she would tell all the other kids to shut up and swear at them. She kept moving her desk where she wasn't supposed to go, ripping up other kids' charts, and every recess a different adult would come in and tell me that she had done something bad. Wednesday I took her to the principal's office finally, because I couldn't get one thing done in class. Today.... here it is... I threw my temper tantrum...

I got up in that little snot's face and told her that I would NOT take ANY of her CRAP today, so she better cut it out RIGHT NOW. She said, "I'm going to tell my mom." I said "Good, tell your mom that you're being disobedient and not listening to your teacher." Then she said, "I'm going to tell the principal." And I said, "GO, tell her right now. Go right ahead. Tell her that you're disrupting the class." So, she.... yes, you guessed it. Rolled her eyes and said "Oh my gaaaawwwd."

I hate kids.

Melindy

You know, I've never disliked my name. Actually, I like BOTH of my names just fine... but the BOTH is where I run into problems. Apparently, my parents couldn't really decide between Melanie or Melinda, so they decided that if I weighed less than 7 pounds, I'd be Melanie, and if I weighed more than 7... well, then, I'd be Melinda (because apparently that's the name for heftier girls. ;) BUT... Melinda wasn't really what they wanted to call me. They wanted to name me Melinda so they could call me Mindy.

So... since most people don't even know that Mindy IS a nickname for Melinda, I've had a lot of confusion. When I was a teenager I had a boyfriend for MONTHS before he came to one of my violin recitals and saw Melinda on the program and realized that my name wasn't just Mindy... he was shocked. I had a Melinda in my ward once that almost got angry at me because she insisted that Mindy was not a nickname for Melinda. My own husband doesn't know how to introduce me to people.

Now, you'd think I could just pick one and just ALWAYS be called that, but this is the problem: If I decided to go by Melinda, I'd have to make my whole family change what they've been calling me for 34 years, and that's just weird. If I decided to always go by Mindy, then I still have the confusion when people see Melinda written on official documents. There is just no easy way.

So, I've switched back and forth. Half of elementary school I was Melinda, the other half Mindy. I was Mindy through the rest of school and in our early marriage. I tried to go by Melinda where we bought our first house, but Brandon introduced me as Mindy once, and it stuck. The next house I went by Melinda, and the place we live now... most people call me Mindy because there was already a Melinda at the gym where I taught classes, so Mindy went on the schedule and it's mostly stuck... but about 1/4 of the people here still call me Melinda. I never know who to say it is on the phone, and I end up confusing people half the time.

The moral of the story is, be careful when you name your kids. I really do like my name, but I don't even know if I'm a Melinda or a Mindy... how can anyone else know? So... which name do you think suits me better?

I Love You... or... Story for Amy

My hilarious best friend Amy (I know, I know! Just let me have my imaginary best friends, okay?) does these writing prompts on her blog, and tells her readers to do it too. And, if Amy says I should do something, then I pretty much have to... except for last week's prompt, because let's face it, I'll never ever ever be nearly as funny as Amy and I was intimidated. But I'm ignoring those same feelings this week, because, as I said, I'll never ever ever be nearly as funny as Amy, but that shouldn't stop me from writing, right? So... here's the prompt:

The writing prompt for this week is: What made you say it? Tell a story (maybe of the first time it happened, maybe not) about a time you said 'I love you' to someone who wasn't a member of your family. Or write about someone you wish you'd said (or never said) 'I love you' to.

My second year of college I happened to meet this amazing guy that I fell for fast and hard. Even my parents knew that something was up with this guy, because I'd get a little bit starry-eyed (or maybe starry-voiced, since I usually just talked to them on the phone) every time I mentioned him.

Not long into our relationship, he said those magical three words to me... I love you... What I should have said back is, "I love you, too! And you're amazing! And I love every minute I'm with you! And I want to marry you and have your babies!" Instead, I looked at him, smiled a half smile and said....... NOTHING! I know, that would be enough to just about kill any relationship right there. How stupid he must have felt, and how stupid I DID feel. I just didn't throw "I love yous" around very often, and it just didn't come out.

Amazingly enough, he stuck with me, I eventually said those words to him, he eventually asked me to marry him (and I said YES right away... I wouldn't dare leave him hanging twice!), then we got married, had 3 kids, and the rest is history. Or the future. Or now.

Saturday Vacation

What good is a Saturday without a little vacation to go with it? We decided to drive to Dinosaur National Monument to get out of the house for awhile, and to spend time together. (Brandon wasn't on call... miracle of miracles... although he STILL got direct calls from his rigs that only like him.) I took a lot of pictures... so it was a fun day for me! I think they were trying to see if they could break through the snow here. Tyler was cold for some reason (it was actually quite warm--about 45 degrees), so he wore Brandon's coat. (Just in case you thought Tyler's arms grew to amazingly weird proportions!)

Aubrey is usually my shadow, but she had her own shadow following her around yesterday. We are still in shock about how much she has grown up. At her swim meet awhile ago the boys wouldn't believe that the girl I pointed out was Aubrey, because she was "too tall".

Cooper is my favorite person to take pictures of. Aubrey usually turns away and hides her face, and Tyler always cheeses for the camera. Cooper doesn't care what I'm doing, so I get a lot of natural shots.

One time, when I got out of the truck to take a picture, Brandon thought it would be funny to honk the horn (I was right in front of the truck). I jumped about a mile, and I think everyone in the car giggled for a good 10 minutes after that. I'll sacrifice my dignity for a good laugh every once in awhile, I guess. ;) This is what you get when you make faces at the camera, and complain about me taking pictures of you.

I love my cute freckly boy. And I love his ears.

The colors are just amazing... the sky was so blue, the rocks so red... it was a perfect day.

Cooper likes to take his gun along with him wherever he goes. I don't know what he's planning on hunting, but it makes him happy.

Oh, deer! Look what we found here!

Split Mountain is one of my favorite places here. It's so beautiful and amazing!

This is a picture of a puddle. I'm not even kidding! There were some really cool reflections in a puddle on the road, and I probably would have never noticed, except I was trying to take pictures of "reflections" for the photography blog I'm part of.

Here's a parting shot of the puddle. I'm never going to pass up a good puddle again! It was so much fun to take pictures of! Ah, I love our Saturdays together.

A Sad, Sad Day

For Christmas, Cooper got some sea monkeys... it was one of his happiest days ever. He even declared, after reading the package, that he would NEVER be lonely AGAIN! He's watched them grow, fed them carefully, stirred them so they would have oxygen, and put them in the window so they would get needed sunshine.
Well, tonight a tragedy occured at the Smith home. Cooper had just got out of the shower, and he came running into the living room, stark naked and sobbing. I couldn't tell what he was saying, except I heard "sea monkeys" in there, and I knew what had happened. So, I went to see the knocked over tank, with no monkeys in it... and held my poor little sobbing boy. He had swung his towel at Tyler because he was mad, and the sea monkeys suffered for it. Cooper kept crying, my babies, MY BABIES... I was going to be a MOTHER!
We said goodbye to the monkeys in the carpet, and talked about the hope of buying new sea monkeys. I think Cooper is going to be okay, poor little guy.

I LOVE running...

...why else would I run a 5K on Valentines Day? :) My dad ran his first 5K on Valentines Day, and I wanted to run it with him... I know, you all think it's crazy, especially since it was SNOWING that day, but it was fun. Really! It was! Geoff was the photographer for the event, since he was the only one with a camera (on his phone). He took this picture of himself, so don't think I'm mean for posting it. Oh, and he ran the race too... with us the whole time until the end, when he decided to sprint to the finish and leave us in the dust... or the snow. ;)

Ready for the race to start... I could've done without that jacket. In fact, I was wishing I had worn shorts about halfway through the race (because it was HOT running, and my pants were also soaking wet and heavy and felt like they were going to fall off.)

Dad... ready for the race. He started off strong... I was a little worried that the pace was too fast, but he didn't ever let up. He ran an awesome race... completely beating his goal of 35 minutes. (I think our official ending time was 30:47 or something...)

My feet were so wet at this point that I didn't worry about running in the slushy snow. My feet were so wet that I could wring water out of my socks after we finally got home. And those pants?? They just soaked the water right up. I should've worn waterproof pants like Geoff, or pants that didn't touch the ground, like Dad. Ah, live and learn.

Hi Geoff! Nice picture.

After the race... finally clean and dry! (The getting clean part was a challenge for me... somehow I slipped in the tub, fell out of it backwards, and took the curtain and rod down with me. Miraculously I wasn't hurt... I'm sure it looked hilarious.) Let me know when you run your next race, Dad! I'm so glad my family loves running too! (Some of them... a couple of them... okay, just me, and my dad a little bit. ;)

6th Picture Tag

My best friend, Carol, (okay, so she's not my best friend because I somehow missed getting to know her when I lived right by her, and now that I'm gone I blog stalk her and she's freakin' hilarious and I think we were meant to be friends all along...) whew... where was I? My best friend Carol is sassy and bossy and said that I am supposed to do this tag. I find the 6th picture in the 6th folder and tell about it. So, here it is. All I know is that it was taken on our way to the Oregon Coast waaaay back in 2004. I'll tag every single person who reads my blog who has NOT done this tag. Don't make me get sassy and bossy like Carol. ;)

Escape From the Big City

We went on one of our "escape" drives this past Saturday, and I had to share a few of the photos I got. Every once in awhile we have to get out of the big city and BREATHE! My baby boy's feet.... balancing on a fence post.

My baby boy's sweet baby face. I'm pretending that I wanted the sun flare there, so go with it, okay?

This idea was really good... I got a lot of potentially good pictures of my boys walking down a road... unfortunately Tyler is crying in all of them. Nothing like a whiny boy to spoil a good shot.

I made Brandon stop a couple of times so I could roll down the window and take a picture. I loved it... it was so much fun to hear the kids screaming to "ROLL UP THE WINDOW, I'M FREEZING!!!" I'm a nice mom.

My only disappointment here is the lack of wind. I've got to catch that flag blowing sometime. I'm thinking it would be fun to take a series of flag pictures. I've got a few to get me started. :)

If you look closely, you can see the monkey in the tree.

I took this one today, so it doesn't really fit, but I'm sticking it here anyway (since I'm lazy about that more than one post thing...)

And, here it is... my favorite picture from last Saturday. Brandon will be mad I posted it, but I love it, and this blog is all about me, right?

My Lips Hurt Real Bad

....from laughing

3 Gifts in One

My amazingly sweet friend, Tari, gave me some beautiful tulips for my birthday. I was SO surprised, and overwhelmed. She didn't even know that tulips are my favorite flower! So, how is it 3 gifts in one, you ask? Well... I took about 120 pictures of them the night I got them! It was so much fun to try different things... I was even making Brandon hold my black music stand behind them for the background! I even used a tripod for the first time (what a pain in the butt! I wish I could hold statue-still myself!) So, the first gift is the tulips in a gorgeous vase. The second gift is something new to photograph! And the third gift?

SPRING on my table!!! Yes, I know the tablecloth needs ironed.

We Have a Winner(s)!!

I've got a funny bunch of friends, that's for sure! :) I'm impressed, since about an hour after I wrote this post I started thinking about it, and realized that I couldn't think of ONE funny thing, so how should I expect you guys to? BUT... you did! :)

I'm going to have to send out two birthday cards, because there was a tie! Brenda gets the first one, for her word with many meanings (Aubrey thought of diarrhea first... nice, huh?), and Melissa gets one for her afterthought for Brandon. Thanks for the laughs, girls! And thanks for the laughs from all of the rest of you, too! You are all such good sports to play along with such a silly game. :)